Fortnite: The Rifter
by AkaDeca
Summary: Heroes are made, not born. With the launch of the rocket in Season 4, Gabriel Claude had a decision: take the rocket down, or accept death with his friends. He chose to stop the rocket at all costs: and boy did it cost him, giving him the ability to teleport and time travel. Background to my other story, Fortnite: The Rifter that Runs with Wolves (which is updated more frequently)


**Fortnite: The Rifter**

 **Author's Note: Hey there guys! I've been a reader of FanFiction for a 5 years now, and I've been on the Fortnite band wagon since Season 3. I think that the game has great characters/skins, but there could be more of a story behind them besides the one that is told to us from their descriptions and the loading screens from weekly challenges. So i've decided that I am going to devote some of my time (I'm a college student so this is a BIG deal) to writing a story. I've noticed that the Fortnite category is a little light in stories, so hopefully this will make up for it.**

 **Furthermore, the main character will be my own, first original character (you will see him later). But rather than leave the Fortnite characters in their own universe, I'm going to spice it up a bit. Remember those rifts that formed from Season 4 to Season 5, and all the memes about them? Yeah, their concept is going to be very important here. Again, you'll see!**

 **I am going to mark the story as Mature because I might have some cursing and violence. I would have made it Teen but I don't take risks...a lot...ok, I just don't want to have my account banned, you get the picture!**

 **This story is meant to provide background to my other story, Fortnite: The Rifter that Runs with Wolves. But, that story will probably be updated more frequently than this one. So try to read that more often than this!**

 **This story is a work in progress and I don't have any idea how I want it to end. I am open to some suggestions, so please comment, message me, or email me and I will respond when I have time (like I said, I'm a freshman in college so that may be a little later)! If enough people like this (in terms of reviews, favorites, follows, etc…), then I will update it as soon as I can. But I will NOT LEAVE THIS STORY UNFINISHED! Phew! That is probably the longest (and only) author's note I have written...so far. Without further adieu, here is the prologue...after a disclaimer!**

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 **Disclaimer: I don't own and I am not affiliated with Fortnite (by Epic Games). If I was part of that organization, then I would have nerfed planes from day one and never removed Moisty Mire (#justiceformoisty). And I would never vaulted the Heavy Shotgun or the Bolt action Sniper either. On a side note, Epic Games, if you want me to write game stories for you please contact me (and the same towards anyone else who is big in Fortnite culture, like Ninja, tfue, Myth, Ceeday, etc…).**

 **Furthermore, any references to other companies or groups are meant out of pure fun and comedy, and I am not receiving any money for using any of them. Nor am I affiliated with any of these companies or groups. Such groups may include but are not limited to: Spongebob, Marvel, the State of California (and its cities, whether real or fictional), J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter, Rockstar Games, Bethesda, and others.**

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Prologue: Humble Beginnings

 **Date: June 30th, 2018 (Fortnite Season 4)**

 **Time: 10:25 AM PST**

 **Location: Villain Base, Western Fortnite Island**

People say that heroes are born. Their power is transferred into them when they come into the world, whether by random chance in genetics, by scientific experiment, or by the perfect alignment of the planets on the first day of an ancient calendar. However they came to be, heroes are expected to use their strengths to aid the innocent and defend against evil.

But super strength and intelligence, those are not what makes a hero. Neither do age or the amount of wisdom one has. In order to protect others, one must have passion and not only strength. They must have morals, not only knowledge. They must have courage in addition to cunning. And most importantly, they must have a desire to protect others at any cost to themselves, whether it be physical, mental or in some cases financial. These traits, they are what separate the heroic from the power hungry. They are what _make_ a hero.

And they are something that belong to me. They are what make me who I am right now...or what I hopefully think I am: a hero. They are why I tailed those trucks with the meteor to this mountain. Why I called Carbide and his team to come once I saw The Visitor pop out of that rock. And currently, they inspired me to grab a gun and get in the middle of this shit show. After this is over, I really deserve a hot bath as a reward for dealing with all these robotic motherf-

A bullet whizzes past my face and into the mirror to the right of my hiding spot, shattering the whole surface of the vanity object. The sound of the bullet impacting the glass deafens my ears. A large fragment of the now destroyed mirror falls on the floor in front of me as bits of broken, jagged glass rain down on my head as I shut my eyes just in time.

"FUCK!" I yell out as some of the shards cut and nip my scalp and cheeks. I look down at the large shard on the floor and see my reflection. My usually black, spiked hair is matted to my head with sweat (and now with added blood, courtesy of the shards and whoever shot that bullet). My 18 year-old-eyes are still squinted to avoid the bits of glass that are still falling, but I can notice the tiredness of my usually vibrant chocolate brown orbs. Now with the added blood on my cheeks from the damn shards, I look like a war vet. After this fire-fight who wouldn't be?

"Gabriel!" Someone's yell makes its was through my stunned ear. I think it's Carbide's. I grab my scar rifle and stagger to my feet, using a gurney as support, shaking off shards of mirror from my army green outfit. I look out the steel window of the medical wing where I've been hiding.

I see Carbide wrestling with a Diecast robot (presumably the one that tried to shoot me, and one of the many Diecasts and Chromiums that are currently swarming the base). Behind him, I see Squad Leader ( _I call him Sarge_ ), Battlehawk, Valor and Omega (what the fuck?! I thought he was helping The Visitor) shooting the horde of robots coming towards them.

"A little help Claude!" Carbide shouts, this time using my last name. I flinch ( _a little from hearing my last name, but mostly from my head wounds...ok, all from the name!_ ). I may be nearly an adult and I should be braver this, but you know that if someone uses your last name, they are either calling you by your nickname, or you have messed up and they want your attention or help with something. Given that we aren't chilling at his house and watching the latest Lucky Llamas sports game, that eliminates the first option.

"Hold on!" I call back. I hold up my rifle and aim down the sights at the robot. I pull the trigger twice and the bullets enter his metal frame. The bot lets go of Carbide, sparks, and falls to the ground short circuiting. Carbide leans back against the wall as he catches his breath. I run through the door and help him stand. "Did it hit you anywhere?"

His face mask retracts, revealing his dark skin. "Aside from a few bruises, I'm good," He grimaces. "You on the other hand look like you should sit this one out."

I give him a shit-eating grin in response. "Ah what, this? This is nothing! You should see the other guy." The "other guy" who did in fact shoot the mirror sparks on the floor and moves his arm to grasp my leg. Carbide pulls out his hand cannon and aims it at the bot's head. "No, don't." I push the handgun carefully to the side. Then I bend down behind the Diecast's head and take of his beret.

"What are you doing?" Carbide questions as I open a compartment on the back of the robot's head.

"We can reprogram them after this is," I grunt as I try to pull out the bot's programming chip. "OVER," I force out as I pull the chip out and the bot powers down. Carbide looks at me in surprise and astonishment.

"Pretty smart Claude. Good thing I brought you along," Carbide says patting my back good-naturedly. _And THERE'S the "happy" usage of my last name. I'm glad that I've reached this level with Carbide._

"Thank you sir" I respond.

Then Carbide's look hardens and he gets serious. "But you're still a kid and you shouldn't be here. Maybe I shouldn't have brought you along."

I groan in response. "Can we agree to disagree and just focus on stopping the Visitor's rocket from...wait, hold on a second!" I exclaim. I look around the corner and still see Omega shooting with the others at the robots. "Did the glass from the mirror go into my brain and screw up my understanding of things, or is Omega helping us?"

"He's helping us," Carbide affirms as his mask retracts and his voice sounds robotic again. "While you were taking cover and picking the bots off-oh, and thanks for listening to my orders," Carbide chuckles at my obedience, "he told us that when he touched the Visitor's meteor a few weeks ago, he was put into a trance to make his suit, build the rocket with the meteor metal, and create all the robots. But that alien's hold over him is over and he wants to help."

"Good," I tell him, "because we need it."

An alarm blares throughout the base. A female, robotic voice blares over the speaker: "ROCKET LAUNCH IN T-MINUS TWO MINUTES." A holographic countdown timer projected up by the command desk and started counting down: 2:00, 1:59, 1:58…

"Fuck, we need to stop these bots and get to the command desk to stop the rocket!" I yell out to the team.

Carbide grabs my arm. "No. We'll handle the bots. You go deactivate the rocket." He gives me a smile. "We're counting on you."

I give him a small smile back. I take my arm out of his grip and grasp his hand in return. "I will." I start running towards the command desk and reload my rifle, trying to wound and incapacitate the robots on the way so I can reprogram them later. _Hold on, can you even wound robots? That's something to think about, I mean there's no flesh, it's just metal and wires. Is it really a wound if there is no flesh? Maybe if they were synths and had flesh-DAMN IT I have a job to do, now isn't the time._ I make a mental note to think about synths and their capabilities later as I reload my rifle again.

Halfway to command desk (about 12 feet) I turn around. "You're going to need this. Your hand cannon isn't fast enough." I take my rifle and put the safety on. Then I hold it in one hand like a frisbee and toss it to him. We both watch as it soars through the air, rotating several times until...

It hits the floor three feet away from him. Everyone in the base (Carbide's team and the robots alike) stopped what they were doing and looked at the gun in silence. Then all of their eyes crawl from the rifle towards me. Even the robots that I had downed on the way to the desk had pity and shock in their metallic eyes as they watched me blush from embarrassment. Then the fighting resumes.

"What the fuck was that?!" Carbide yells.

"I thought you could use the gun since I'm not going to use it right now!" I yell back, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Well thank you, but did you honestly think that it would make it the whole way here?"

"I mean, I put a lot of force into that throw, and it is pretty close," I say trying to justify my throw. _It was pretty close_ , _not_ that _bad._

"Well at least you put the safety on," he says, attempting to ease the stupidity of my action. "We got lucky that it didn't shoot one of us." As he says that, the safety on the rifle disengages, and the rifle tilts back on its stock from the movement of the safety lock like a seesaw. The movement jostles the trigger and the gun fires a bullet up into the rafters above the rocket.

"GACK!" Someone screams as the bullet hits them. Then the Visitor falls down 20 feet from the rafters and hits the ground on his back, grazed by the bullet but knocked unconscious from his impact with the ground.

I look back at Carbide and raise an eyebrow. "Would you like to judge the luck of that happening and us having one more problem solved?" I question smugly.

The blue-suited hero raises his finger to respond, but just shakes his head. "Don't you start with me," he says in authoritative fatherly voice. "We'll talk about this later. Now go stop that rocket." He picks up the rifle, chambers another round, and goes off to help the others. As he jogs to them, I can hear him mutter, "Thinking you're in a damn video game or movie. You're going to get yourself killed or hurt someone."

 _That was pretty lucky no matter what he says,_ I think to myself. Remembering the countdown timer, I quickly turn back to the desk and see the projection showing 1 minutes and thirty seconds remaining. I run all the way there and stop when I get to the desk. "Alright, lets rock and roll."

The dashboard won't turn on, so I take off a panel underneath the desk, revealing dozens of different colored wires. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" I yell out loud. I stop and look at the whole thing for 5 seconds, realizing what has to be done. "Nevermind, it's just like taking apart a computer." I get a grin on my face as I take off my backpack. I bring out a pair of scissors from one of the pouches and start to cut all the blue, black, green and red wires.

After those wires are cut, I wipe the sweat off my brow and look at the projection. 1 minute and 10 seconds remaining. I check on the fight. There are only a few robots left now and we have the upperhand. I notice that a good chunk of them aren't too damaged, and smile as I realize that Carbide must have told the others that they can be reprogrammed. _We can win. We_ will _win,_ I think to myself.

I go back into the panel and start connecting all the black and blue wires together, and all the green and red ones together as well. When I'm finished, I get out and take a glance at the fight. All the robots are incapacitated or dead. _Maybe the dead ones can be repaired-NO, NO! Focus!_ I shake my head and see the team heading my way. I glance at the projection by my side and see 50 seconds left.

I get up off the floor and look at the control panel. I click a sequence of buttons and one dial and the whole thing powers up. " Let's see where it has been targeted to." I twist a dial and a screen pops up. I go to a keyboard and time in commands to see the last targeted location. An animation of the rocket's path shows up on the screen, showing the rocket launch, point downward, and target…

"Son of a bitch!" Battlehawk says from behind me. I turn around and see him slack-jawed and his eyes ( _well,_ eye _because he has an eyepatch_ ) wide, with all of the others bearing similar expressions of shock, disbelief, and fear on their faces. _Well not really Carbide or Omega. They have masks so you can't really tell what's going on under there._ "He wants to destroy Tilted Towers!"

It's true. The animation confirms it as the rocket on screen explodes into Tilted Towers. "It's the most populated location on the island," Valor squeaks out. "Hundreds of people live there, maybe even over a thousand!"

"They'll all be dead, and there is no telling how far the blast radius will reach, considering that we don't know the capabilities of the meteor metal," Omega adds in his deep robotic voice.

 _If he wasn't wearing a mask, I swear he would be pale right now_. I gulp as I fully understand the gravity of the situation. How many people could die, even several of my friends who live in Tilted.

"LAUNCH IN T-MINUS 30 SECONDS," the robotic voice announces.

I jump back into action and start typing on the keyboard. I type in every kill command I can think of, and pull up files on the screen that have to do with the rocket's code. "Here!" I announce. "The radius is set to-" I choke up and shake, my voice starting to crack. "It's set to cover the entire island."

The others behind me gasp. "Can you change it Claude?" Carbide demands behind me.

"Yes, I think I can." I go into the codes that I have on the screen and start changing details under a section named "Radius." After ten more seconds, I've done it. "Done! Now the blast will only be concentrated in Tilted and the effects from the impact will stay in the area within a quarter mile radius."

"Can't you go any less!?" Sarge demands aggressively.

"I tried but if I do then it will overload the rocket and it might even explode in mid air, and then all the island will be peppered by its effects." Sarge looks grim at my words.

"Shut the whole thing down. We have 15 seconds, you can do it!" says Carbide encouragingly.

"Alright." I get back to typing and find the coded section I need: "Disengage Launch." I type in a kill code and and try to upload it to the rocket. An error message pops up on the screen. I slam my fist on the dashboard. "Shit! It's a dead-man's switch!" I exclaim.

"Meaning?!" Valor demands.

"Not only could we never stop the rocket, but because I tried to stop it, the rocket has been set back to its original blast damage radius of the entire island! The Visitor must have known we'd try to stop it and made it before we got here. Even he can't escape it now."

Everyone stop breathing, blinking, and moving. "We're done for," Omega says, sounding gloomy like he is crying under his mask. "Us, and everyone on this island. We'll be burnt alive, slaughtered. And it's all BECAUSE OF ME!" he screams out.

Carbide takes him and puts his hands on his shoulders. "Listen! It's not your fault. He controlled you without you being able to do anything. What matters is that you snapped out of it and tried to stop him, that WE tried to stop him," he says trying to console the taller, black-suited former-villain.

"But what's the point. We lost. And everyone will die now," he responds.

We all look down at the floor, thinking about how this is it. We'll never see our families again. Never breathe again. Never speak again. Never have families of our own, never know love. I lean on the dashboard with my elbows and put my head in my hands.

"LAUNCH ACTIVATED," the robotic voice sounds. Then all sound stops in the base and red lights start blaring around the rockets as the dreaded projector reads 00:00. Then, the rocket thrusters start and smoke starts coming up from under the grated metal panels and catwalks under the rocket. Very slowly, the rocket starts lifting up.

I look at the others behind me. They have resigned to accept their fate while sitting on the floor. Sad smiles on their faces, with Valor and Battlehawk visibly sniffling along with tears running down their sweaty cheeks. _They are probably thinking of all they have done, all they experienced. All the laughs they shared, jokes they played, battles fought together, people they loved; and all they had yet to do in their young lives,_ I think sadly.

Then I remember what I had thought right in the middle of this whole firefight when I was in that corner. Right before that bullet slammed into the mirror next to me. To protect others, one must have passion, morals and courage. Most importantly, they must have a desire to protect others at any cost to themselves whatsoever. A person can't be born with these traits. They are gained through a person's actions. Whether they sit down and do nothing, or they stand up and do something. In this way, heroes aren't born: they are made.

The rocket is still slowly rising behind me. I look at these people sitting in front of me. _They can't help themselves. Neither can anyone across the island. Well, except my adoptive grandfather John Wick (or Reaper, whatever he calls himself), he can probably take care of himself._ I chuckle at that thought in my head. _But these heroes have done more than enough. It is my turn now._

I stand up straight and grab my backpack, packing my scissors away and putting the bag on my back. The others look at me sorrowfully.

"There's nothing left to do Gabriel. You did all you could but we just have to face it. It's over. We lost and no one is coming back from this. There is nothing we can do," Valor explains, trying to get me to sit down and die in peace with them when the current slowly climbing rocket comes down. The others nod in agreement.

"There might be nothing left for you to do, but not for me," I tell her, not as an explanation, but as a statement of fact. They all look shocked, even Omega behind his mask. _How can I tell he's shocked?! He has a mask! You know what, I'm not even going to question it at this point._ "You've all done all you could, but I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and accept death knowing I could have done something to stop it for everyone on the island."

They all rise. "What do you want to do?" Carbide asks quickly.

"Simple. I'm going to stop the rocket."

"I thought you said we can't?" Battlehawk asked, his short mohawk bobbing as he tilted his head curiously.

"Not from down here. Manually. On the rocket."

They all gasp. "Gabriel, you'll die if you go up on that thing," Valor says out of concern. "Even if you stop it, you won't have a way to get back on the ground!"

"I'll die if I stay down here, what's the difference?" I demand. "Plus, there's a door on the side of the rocket. I can go in from there and take it down from the inside."

"Fair enough. Let him do it," affirms Sarge, while the others look at him questioningly, Valor and Carbide a little mad. "He said he can do it, let him! Plus he's probably the only one of us who knows how to stop it."

"Alright. Good luck kid. We believe in you," Carbide says, retracting his mask, and Omega retracting his own mask to reveal...ANOTHER MASK, are you kidding me? _If I survive this, he had better show me what he looks like, I seriously deserve it._ They all give me warm, reassuring smiles.

That settles it. I look behind me. The rocket's bottom and the door are nearing the last catwalk. I spot an oxygen mask and gas tank on the control panel I've been working on. _Probably the Visitor's,_ I think. _I can use it to breath while the rocket is up high._ I run towards it, strap the gas can onto my back next to my backpack, and put the mask on. Then I run to the catwalk and get ready to jump onto the moving rocket. I see the door coming up and I jump, grabbing on to two handholds right next to the door.

I grunt as the rest of my body hits the metal frame and the rocket starts to climb out of the roof of the base. I see a button on the side of the door frame and hit it, opening the door. Carefully, I slide through the door frame and step into the rocket, with the door shutting behind me.

"Alright, time to get to work." I run into the rocket interior and see a ladder up to the main power core, around which the meteor metal has been deposited as well. I start climbing up the ladder when suddenly, the rocket stops moving upward and drops a little. I feel the G-force affect me as my stomach and heart move up in my chest.

As suddenly as the rocket stopped, it starts up again and moves FAST. I hear something detach from the rocket ( _probably the thrusters_ ), and my heart and stomach (and every other squishy organ inside of me) get pushed down. I hold steadfast onto the ladder, and keep climbing up bit by bit against the effects of the rocket's speed. Finally, I reach the power core, feeling a little light headed from the high altitude of the rocket. _At least the mask is helping._ I take a wrench out of my bag, and start to unscrew the bolts on the cage surrounding the core.

"From what I understood from the schematics and code, if I unscrew the bolts I can access the power core and destroy it. Then they'll be no way for the rocket or any of its systems to function, and it can hopefully land in some fields somewhere and cause no fatal damage," I exclaim to no one. "Anddddd I'm talking to myself. Today just gets better and better. Great," I groan, continuing to unscrew the bolts.

I finally get all of the bolts off and I can remove the reinforced steel cage around the power core. I take it and throw it down the ladder to the bottom of the rocket.

Suddenly, the rocket starts to slow down and tilt downward. Whirring sound comes from the head of the rocket. Then, a mechanical male voice says "ZERO OSCILLATORS REMAINING." Then a female mechanical voice says "SET COORDINATES," followed by a dial-up sound as the rocket begins to point into a nosedive downward.

"I need to move fast!" I jab the wrench at the power core, but the core deflects the wrench and it ricochets into the wall of the rocket and clangs halfway down the rocket before it reverses and clangs down towards me. I duck as it gets lodged in the nose of the rocket. I peer over at where the wrench was stuck.

"Shit, the nose dive must have caused it to come back," I exclaim out loud. "Wait, doesn't that mean…" I hear an increasingly loud clanging coming towards me from the bottom part of the rocket which is now facing upward. I look back. "FU-" I'm cut off from my colorful language as the steel cage I threw down earlier smacks me hard in the face. "Son of a BITCH!" I yell through gritted teeth in pain, as blood begins pooling in my mouth and coming out of a large gash across my temple and over my eye.

The mechanical voice says "ENGAGING ULTIMATE ACCELERATOR."

Then, I heard the deafening tone of a targeting system start up ( _probably aiming at Tilted_ ), and the rocket starts to speed up as the secondary thrusters kick in hard. I struggle against the incredible amount of G-force as I feel my hands struggling to keep hold of the ladder.

"Screw it!" I yell out. With nothing left to attack the power core (since I can't reach anything in my bag due to the g-force), I resolve to use my final weapon: myself. Still struggling against the G-force, I slowly bring my left arm off of the ladder and towards the core. I know that any second now the rocket will collide with the city, and everything I know and love will be destroyed in the blast radius. _Well, better one life lost than a few hundred thousand. I may be a kid, but I'll finally be a hero._ With that final thought, I grit my blood covered teeth, close my eyes, and throw my fist at the power core. My body shudders with agony as electricity and energy course through me. But I stay strong and bear through the pain as the whole rocket gets enveloped in blue light and shudders from the disruption of me inside its belly.

* * *

 **On Top of the Villain's Base, post-launch:**

"On your feet you bastard! Keep moving!" Omega commanded the weary and now awake Visitor at gunpoint, as the whole group of heros (plus one villain) walked up the stairs to the top of the base. Once there they would observe their demise in the form of the rocket, barrelling down to impact all they know and love. That is, unless Claude, a _kid_ , managed to stop it. "We're all going to die, and I want you to have front row seats to your creation," Omega said grimly. Said creation was still climbing up, slowing down a tad before ejecting its thrusters which landed in Anarchy Acres.

"I was trying to do a good thing. It's not what you think," the Visitor said glumly in his robotic voice, shocking everyone as he was speaking for the first time since he came to the island. Well, besides his scream when he got shot a few minutes ago and was knocked unconscious,

"How could making a rocket and directing it to the most populated location on the island be a good thing? Please, enlighten us," Sarge said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "And extending the blast radius to cover the whole island with a dead-man's switch doesn't seem very much like a "good thing,"" the man adds with anger.

"Hold on, you did what?" the Visitor asks, intrigued and shocked. "You were able to activate my back up plan? No one should have been able to even turn on the control panel, let alone adjust the rocket settings."

"But Claude did!" Battlehawk said with a hint of pride. "And _he_ is currently inside your beast trying to stop it from killing us all." They all briefly look up towards the rocket down beginning to tilt downward, from where they can hear the faint sound of some mechanical command being stated.

"That child is brilliant," the the robot-like human hummed with admiration. "Genius in fact, if he could get through my security programs. But the rocket wasn't supposed to kill you all," he droned sadly. "My planet had a large population. Many of my people suffered from a lack of food and water to go around. I didn't want to see the same happen to this place. So I designed the rocket to only kill some of your people. The _strong_ would survive, and then they would prosp-"

Carbide slaps the man's head angrily before he can finish. "You idiot! Do you know how sad people would be? Growing up without family and friends? Feeling guilty that they lived and others didn't? All the resources in the world wouldn't be worth it. What kind of living is that?! And that kid up there, he is probably the strongest of us all and he is going to die trying save this whole damn island!" the blue-suited hero huffed out.

The Visitor stops reeling from the slap in realization. "I'm sorry. I was only trying to help. What have I done?" he asks, starting to shake.

"There is no point in fighting each other now," Valor states, putting an end to their fighting. "We can only hope that Gabriel can stop the rocket before it crashes." They all look up to the rocket, now targeting Tilted Towers with lazers.

"If he can damage the power core, then the rocket will deactivate and land harmlessly intact in the city," the Visitor says hopefully.

"He can do it," Carbide says hopefully, the others murmuring in agreement. Just then, the secondary thrusters on the rocket start up, and it start speeding towards the city. Everyone's eyes widen, realizing the impending immediate end of their lives and of the island itself.

"It was nice serving with you people," Sarge murmurs sadly. The rocket speeds up, just about to hit the city…

When it creates a jagged blue tear in the sky right above the highest building, and the whole thing disappears into it, leaving as though it never existed with the city oblivious to its near demise. The only sign of its presence was the column of smoke and exhaust it had left while blasting off out of the base. They all just stand there, jaws dropped and eyes wide.

"Where did it go?!" Sarge yelled out, breaking the silence. He looked at the Visitor, his face mask designs focusing and unfocusing into a crosshair, but the rest of him unmoving. "Do you know?"

"I have no idea," the extraterrestrial responded. They all remain shocked in wonder and amazement, glad that the rocket is gone, but all wondering the same thing: where had it gone, and where had it taken Gabriel Claude?

* * *

 **Date: 1879**

 **Location: Town in Western Texas**

 _Just another slow day in town_ , thought John. He was sitting in front of the saloon on the wooden porch, as usual, with a bottle of whiskey that Bill had just made a day ago. No one was out, as usual. It was just himself, the whiskey bottle, and the desolate street. "Now I'm gonna have me some of this whiskey," John says with a grin. He takes off his Stetson cowboy hat and wipes the sweat off his brow from the hot desert sun.

He puts the hat back on, picks up a glass and the whiskey bottle by his feet, and pours himself a generous shot of the strong liquor. He takes a small sip to test it, and when he is hit by the fine taste of the magnificent beverage, he downs the whole shot glass.

"Ahhhh," he says, content as the smooth drink flows through him and warms up his innards. "That's good. Bill's outdone himself," he drawls in his Texan accent.

Suddenly, a blue fissure starts forming in the sky. Then, next thing John knows a big train ( _is that a flying train?! What the hell was in that drink!?)_ bursts through the crack and starts circling the the town. Meanwhile, John just sits there wide-eyed, observing the pattern of the sky train. He closes his eyes and breaths for a second since it's starting to make him dizzy.

He opens his eyes and keeps following the train again. Then, as quickly as it came, it made a new crack in the sky and leaves like a bat out of hell, leaving behind a big exploding sound as it goes.

John takes a look at his whisky bottle, then looks back at the sky where the blue crack is starting to disappear, leaving blue residue to fall down on the town. He takes another good, hard look at the bottle. Coming to a decision, he gets up, walks to the edge of the saloon porch, and pours out all the precious liquor in the bottle onto the ground, where it dried up quickly in the sun's merciless path.

He turns back to the saloon door and yells, "Bill! You're making your shit too damn strong! Make it better!"

Bill's footsteps are audible as he walks around from behind the counter to the door. He looks at John curiously with a raised eyebrow. "Sure thing John. By the way, what was that big boom sound?" he questions, then leans in before he speaks again more quietly. "Were you having one of your bowel movements?" he asks concerned.

John turns red in the face. "I thought I told you specifically to never mention that to anyone, even myself, or I would skin you alive," he says angrily, low enough that no one in the saloon can hear but loud enough that Bill understands his grave mistake.

Bill visibly pales. "H-h-honest mistake is all," he stammers, trying to calm John down.

"Of course it is," John says smugly, with a scary looking grin on his face. "Tell you what," he starts gruffly as he takes the now empty bottle and thrusts it hard into Bill's arms, "make me a GOOD bottle of whiskey and I will probably forget the whole thing."

Bill nods so rapidly his head might fall off. "Yes sir!" he squeaks, and rushes back into the saloon, getting odd looks and shrugs from his patrons sitting at the bar and at tables.

"Hmph," John breathes out as he goes back to sit down in his chair. "Flying trains? That is some strong stuff for sure Bill," he gives a little laugh. "Strong stuff indeed." He closes his eyes, and slowly falls asleep, warmed by the suns rays.

Unknown to the now sleeping cowboy, young Calamity and her friend Deadfire had witnessed the appearance and disappearance of the flying train as they were crouching at the side of the porch. Their eyes were wide through the whole ordeal of the airborne locomotive, as well as learning about the source of the recent bad smell around town.

"That didn't look like no flying train to me," Calamity whispered to Deadfire.

"Well whatever it was, it's gone now," the older boy tells her. "Let's just go to the stables and work. We need money if we are ever going to get out of this town and see the world." Calamity agrees with him.

They both get up from their hiding spot and continue on to the horse stables. As they were walking, they failed to notice bits of blue dust and residue floating down upon them and various broken down buildings across town. One item that got a lot of the blue dust was a wooden carriage that belonged to one of the saloon's wealthier patrons. And right to the side of the carriage, a small blue portal formed. It would go unnoticed for some time as said patron was beginning to like the taste of Bill's fine whiskey.

* * *

 **On Top of the Villain's Base, post-rocket disappearance:**

"Where could it have gone?" Carbide wondered. The rocket had been gone for a few seconds. Suddenly, on the far side of the island right over Moisty Mire, a blue fissure started forming and growing. It then cracked and a sonic boom crossed over the island, reaching them instantly and causing them to stagger backwards. The rocket came out of it and began to fly along the eastern side of the island.

"There it is! It better not crash after all this," Sarge exclaimed. The rocket flew North over Wailing Woods and quickly veered left to fly over Loot Lake.

"It's coming towards us! Brace!" Battlehawk called out, as they all got on the ground and covered themselves with their hands, watching the rocket in earnest. It zoomed past them towards a house on a nearby mountain, and disappeared into another blue crack.

"I've got it!" the Visitor shouts proudly. "He's damaging the power core and it is causing the rocket to create the fissures and go into them," he explains with enthusiasm.

"But where does it go when it disappears?" Omega asks through gritted teeth.

If the Visitor didn't have his suit on, his paleness would have shown. "I don't know," he whispers softly. The others look on to see where the rocket and their beloved friend would reappear next.

* * *

 **Date: 915 AD**

 **Location: Norway, Scandinavian Archipelago**

A blue haired Viking was working on storing a recently acquired basket of fish. The cold, winter air tickled the man's beard and the shaven right side of his head. His armor clinks together as he moves the basket into storage for the village to enjoy in the current freezing winter.

"Ragnarok, hvordan er du min venn?" ("Ragnarok, how are you my friend?") a blonde helmeted man asks the imposing, blue haired Viking in a light, gentle voice.

"Ikke verst min venn Magnus. Bare lagre fisken om vinteren" ("Not bad my friend Magnus. Just storing the fish for winter"), the now named Ragnarok responds in a deep, friendly tone.

Suddenly, the sky flashes blue and both men look up in surprise and curiosity. Then, a large purple and black object breaks through a blue crack in the sky with a bang and flies around their village. Ragnarok draws a frost encrusted sword, and Magnus takes out his elegantly smithed axe.

"Dragon angep!" ("Dragon attack") Magnus calls out. Across the village, word spreads of the behemoth now circling their island, and their friends rush out of their houses. They both see Huntress pick up her axe and look fiercely at the beast. The blonde beauty had her hair painted and tossed in front of her shoulder, always ready for battle with her signature blue face paint.

"Stå ned! Hvis det er en drage, har jeg aldri sett det før, og vi bør ikke angripe det. Vi vet ikke hva det kan gjøre" ("Stand down! If that's a dragon I've never seen it before and we shouldn't attack it. We do not know what it can do."), Ragnarok shouts. The villagers comply and relax, weapons still at the ready.

The newly identified "dragon" soars around the island a few more times before it forms another blue crack in the sky, slips in, and leaves just as quickly as it had come with a loud crack. It leaves blue residue floating down onto the whole village.

"Det var nære. Vi må være forsiktige. Jeg vil ha vakter rundt landsbyen hver kveld hvis det kommer tilbake" ("That was close. We need to be careful. I want guards around the village every night in case that thing comes back."), Ragnarok announces, sheathing his sword and rolling built up energy and adrenaline out of his shoulders.

"Flott ide sjef. Vi er klare når det kommer tilbake" ("Great idea chief. We'll be ready when it comes back."), Magnus affirms cheerfully, strapping his axe to his hip. The blonde Viking goes into the the shed to help store the fish, while his chief shakes his head with a small smile.

"Prøver å unngå vakt plikt som vanlig venn?" ("Trying to avoid guard duty as usual friend?") the chief asks his lifelong friend.

"Vil du ha hjelp eller ikke?" ("Do you want my help or not?") Magnus demands goodnaturedly.

"Jeg tror at tiden din ville bli brukt bedre hvis du prøver å domstolen Huntress" ("I think your time would be better spent if you try to court Huntress"), Ragnarok jokes, patting his friends back.

Magnus start to blush and turn red, embarrassed by his love for the valkyrie-like beauty. "Lukk opp og lagre fisken" ("Shut up and store the fish"), the blonde man responded. Ragnarok started to laugh as he moved more fish baskets into storage while his friend helped him. Unbeknownst to either of them or the rest of the village, small blue portals and cracks began to form around the village, similar to what the dragon had arrived and left in.

* * *

 **On Top of the Villain's Base, post second rocket disappearance:**

As they were scanning the sky for any sign of the rocket, another large and intense blue fissure started forming over the lake. Lots of sparks were coming off of it as it started to form and grow. Finally, the rocket jumped out of it aiming upwards.

"There it is!" yelled out Carbide. Then, the rocket's thrusters started up again and it accelerated towards the sky.

"Maybe it'll run out of fuel and crash into the ocean. Then we can rescue Gabriel and congratulate him on his daring and chivalry," Valor said hopefully. Just as everyone grew happy at that thought, the rocket created and impacted into another crack that spread across the entire sky above the island. The rocket and Gabriel were gone. Everyone's once happy mood became dark and sorrowful.

"No," Valor whimpered, tears falling from her eyes.

"Where'd they go?" Omega demanded of the Visitor. "Where is that kid?"

"I don't know," the robotic figure said sorrowfully. "It's impossible to tell. For all we know he could be dead. And for all he has done for this island and its people, I can only hope that his death was swift and painless."

The group looked depressed at this bad news. They all sat down and looked at the last crack in the sky. It was like a scar, that had taken the young boy out of their lives. It had extinguished his soul before he even had a chance to enjoy himself. He would never get to grow up, have fun with his friends, or ever have a family.

Everyone in the group, even the Visitor who they had battled during this whole event, mourned the loss of a friend.

"I'll miss you," Carbide said as a tear rolled down his cheek. "We all will." Due to their mourning, the group rightfully didn't see residue from the scar fall onto the island. Neither did they see small, blue rifts form across the land. And they didn't see one of them envelope the Durr Burger head and take it to somewhere unknown.

* * *

 **Inside the rocket, during rift jumps:**

I don't remember when I started screaming. I don't believe I stopped screaming anytime either. When I first punched the power core, my body was in pure agony. Energy coursed down my whole body and I screamed for all I was worth. It was the only way to deal with the pain.

After the first impact shudder of the rocket and the crackling sound that followed, I realized that it hadn't crashed into Tilted since I wasn't dead ( _thankfully)_. I guess I had straightened the rocket out and we were still in the air. But if we were still in the air, we might hit something and this would all be for nothing. I panted, trying to catch my much needed breath through the oxygen mask around my face. Then it hit me: I have no way of seeing where the rocket was going.

I didn't know if we were going to hit something, I didn't even know where we were. _How the fuck am I going to stop this thing and survive?_ I couldn't do anything from my hapless position. The only thing I could do was slam my arm back into the power core and hope it kept this big hunk of metal from killing people and staying in the air.

 _It's going to be painful. You might pass out. You may even die. You are probably GOING to die...But you were going to die if you stayed on the ground, so what is the difference now?_

I sigh as I listen to the two subconscious voices in my head argue with each other.

 _You can do this-_

 _No you CAN'T._

 _Shut up and let him make his own decisions Nigel._

 _No, you shut it Carlos and let him die in peace!_

"SHUT UP!" I yell out, and the voices stop. I'm going to do this and take the pain because I'm already here and I am NOT going to let everything I know and love die when I have nothing left to do but HELP them!"

It is silent for several seconds until…

 _I told he'll make make his own decisions,_ Carlos's voice says smugly. ( _Hold on can a voice in my head be smug? Is that possible?)_

 _Be quiet Carlos._

Before the voices can start arguing again, I punch my arm at the core and scream out in pain again as the rocket shudders due to my disruption. Blue light fluctuates inside the whole hull of the rocket. I hold my hand there for as long as I can handle it, which is not for longer than a few seconds. I pull my arm back and grab the ladder, breathing heavily for more oxygen from the mask. Then, as soon as I can, I punch my arm at the core again and start the pain once more.

I do this 3 more times, each time more painful than the last. Finally after last manual disruption of the rocket and hence the end of more pain for me, I feel the rocket points upward. _Hopefully it'll run out of fuel and just stop._ Then, as if some higher being wanted to mess with me a little more, the rocket's thrusters start up again and the vehicle flies upward, putting me under immense G-force.

"It's time to end this once and for all!" I shout, and for the final time that day, I punch the core with all I have left in me, and I scream the loudest that I've ever screamed in my life. I can't close my eyes since I'm so weakened, and I see flashes of blue in my sight. I hear a final large crack, and my world starts to darken as I lose consciousness.

* * *

 **Date: June 30th, 2018**

 **Location: Desert near Palmdale, California**

The first thought I had as woke up was _why is it so damn bright? Did someone give the sun adderall? Seriously?!_ As I started to come to, I tried to reach my arms up to block out the light. It was a bad move. My arms were filled with immense pain, mainly my left arm. Worst decision I made in my life, but still better than getting on that rocket. No, third worst decision. The new second worst decision was punching the power core with my left arm. Anyway, like I said, both punching the core and lifting my arms were better than getting on the rocket.

 _Wait, the rocket!_ I sit up fast and regret it immediately, obviously forgetting about the pain I had from moving my arms. My entire body aches and there is blood dried and stuck to my face and head, even a little on my arms. But back to the matter at hand.

Slowly, I open my eyes as they adjust to the bright light. When they are finally open, I see that I am in...a desert?

I slowly get on my feet, surprised. Once I stand up, I start to wobble and fall down on my ass, bringing me more pain. _Come on. Can I not catch a break?_ Remembering the rocket, I look around, and all that I can see are bits and pieces of exploded, charred black metal, most of them burning and disintegrating into burnt pieces of small pieces and smoke.

 _It must have exploded when I hit the power core the last time._ I get up on my feet once more and manage to stand up without falling. "Well, wherever this is, it's not the island. So everyone is safe...except me," I say aloud, as I come to the realization that I have no idea how I'm going to get back home. I start walking through the sandy desert, wincing from the pain. _It must be from the rocket crashing,_ I think to myself. Soon, I spot a road. I run to it and see a road sign. "Maybe this will tell me where I am."

I look at the sign and read off "Welcome to Palmdale, California." "Well at least I know where I am, but that still doesn't tell me how I going to get home," I sigh to myself. I decide that I'll keep walking down the road for a while and think of something. I start walking East to a town called Llano as a bunch of police cars rush past me sirens blazing. _They're going to the crash site. Good thing I brought my bag and the oxygen tank._ Realizing that the now empty tank was weighing me down, I take it off and hold both the spent oxygen tank and the mask in my arms. When I get to the place called Llano, I see a homeless man sitting outside a pawn shop. I walk over to him, leave the can at his feet, and he looks up at me gratefully as he reaches for it to sell it inside the shop for cash.

I kneel down and put my hand on the tank and frown. "If I find out that you pawned this for cash and used that cash for drugs or some other bullshit, I will find you and make you wish I never gave it to you in the first place." The man looks scared. Whether it's because of my appearance ( _I was still bloody and probably had burns on me from the crash)_ or my words, or both of those reasons, I'll never know. I put on a smile and pat his hand. "Just get some food and clothes, alright?" The man nods and runs into the pawn shop to get cash. I shake my head and continue walking down a street called East Avenue South.

I take my bag off my shoulders and grab a slurp juice from one of the larger pouches. "How did this not break?" Instead of thinking about the strength of the glass, I start drinking the liquid and feel my wounds start to heal. "That's better," I say happily.

Close to the middle of the street, I hear something sparking and it stops me in my tracks. "I've heard that before. But where?" I wonder out loud. Then it hits me. No, the answer ACTUALLY falls on top my head ( _lightly, of course. Maybe someone_ does _pity me)_. It's a hand sized piece of black metal; more specifically, reinforced steel with traces of the meteorite. It was part of the rocket that must have broken off before I crashed. "It's the noise from when I punched the power core in the rocket!"

I look over to the origin of the sound and see a blue crack forming in the air above a patch of desert. I slide the piece of rocket metal into my pocket and cautiously step towards the crack. " _BANG!"_ I jump back in surprise and awe. It's the Durr Burger head!

I look around to see if there is anyone else here. Luckily, no one is here, but pretty soon people are going to start wondering what is up. _I can see it know. News trucks and tourists are going to wonder what the hell this is and who put it here. It'll be all over the internet in a few hours. I need to move fast._ I run up to the burger head and investigate the whole thing. It's intact. By why is it here?

I begin to concentrate. _Alright, focus Gabe. The burger appeared in a blue light. Wait a second..._ "Blue light!" I yell out. "There was blue light inside the rocket whenever I slammed my arm into the power core. The effects of the rocket's last impact before I blacked out must have spread across the island. I just hope everyone is ok," I worry. "But the burger is intact, so everyone back home should be fine. But how can I get back?"

I begin to think hard out loud. "The ability for the burger to come here must have come from when the rocket was still over the island. That explains how that fissure or rift brought it here. But I doubt I can recreate that because the rocket is destroyed, and the power core must have burnt up before the rocket crashed. Even if I went back to where I woke up to try and find something, the police here must have already taken it as evidence. They wouldn't leave it for people to collect," I think glumly.

Exhausted from my long and stressful day and needing rest, I put both my hands on the burger and let out a sigh. I cry a little. "How am I going to get back home? HOW?!" I scream the last part out. Something blue sparks and I catch it out of the corner of my eye. My head shoots up like a rocket (no pun intended) and I see small blue sparks on my hands. Not on the burger, my own HANDS.

The answer was here the whole time. My eyes go wide. "With the amount of times I bashed my arm into that power core, some of the "rift" power may have transfered to me. Maybe I can "will" a rift to come into existence and take me back, like how one of them brought the burger here."

With new resolve and a decent plan, I stand up straight and walk a few paces away from the burger to a clear patch of desert. I make sure my bag is secure on my back and then I concentrate. I hold my hands up above my head, narrow my eyes and push them forward, and…

Nothing happens. I try again, but this time as I push my hands out, I yell "To Fortnite Island."

Still nothing.

I try multiple times and use different strategies: pushing my arms forward, down, up, backwards, crossed like I'm about to say "Wakanda Forever," inverted, failure, nope, zip, nada! I try all the arm combinations with different phrases: "Wakanda Forever" ( _hey I had to try it, and plus I was desperate_ ), "Shia Kazing," "Open Sesame," "Lemon drop," and "Lamp" ( _this should show how_ desperate _I am and that I'm running out of ideas)._ Still, I get nothing but failure after failure.

Exhausted. I scream out in annoyance, not caring if anyone hears me.

"Hey can you keep it down?! I have work in 4 hours and I need to sleep," a middle aged woman yells out though the window in the house across the street.

"Shut UP!" I yell back. _I would really like to know why my yelling concerns her, and_ not _the fact that there is a giant burger with its tongue sticking out of its mouth across from her house!_ I take a deep breath and concentrate again. I lift my arms up until my hands are next to my head. I clear my mind of everything. "I need to concentrate." _Ok, think of just one thing. Where do you want to go. Where do you want to be now more than anywhere else? Say it out loud and say it with meaning._

"Home," I say calmly, as I bring my arms down to my sides and point my hands at the ground. I hear a sharp _crack_ and a blue rift opens up underneath my feet. I grin but then I frown. "It woRKKEEdddd!" I start off and scream at the end as I fall down through the portal and it closes above me. I look down and see Fortnite Island as I free fall through the air towards a possibly VERY painful death.

* * *

 **Location: Eastern edge of Fortnite Island, in the sky**

"Well, I'm back home. But I'm in the fucking SKY!" I shout as I fall down towards the island. I aim for the Villain's Base where this whole thing started. _Hopefully the team are still there. If I don't make this landing at least they will_ know _that I'm dead._

Trying to make it so I can try and land easily, I straighten my body out so I am parallel to the island. This way I will slow my descent down to think about what I can do. Once I have accomplished that, I tilt my head a tad downward so I can aim true to the top of the base. _I'm right on target. Not bad for having not skydived-_

"SHIT, I don't have a parachute!" I yell out as I level myself out again to slow down. I think about what I can do. At this point, I either come up with something fast or I become a human pancake. I have about 1500 meters left, so that is roughly less than 30 seconds.

 _My bag. It should have something_. I carefully ( _as carefully as you can while falling towards earth at terminal velocity_ ) bring my bag off my backpack and put my arms though the loops so it is secure against my chest. Then I open the biggest zipper and start going through it. _Food, tools, knife, pistol...ointment, why do I need…_ "Oh for mask chafing. That's right, Carbide put this in here for himself."

I look back at the ground. I have about 1000 meters, 20 seconds left. I go back to the bag and look more frantically. _Bandages, shields-_ "AHA!" I shout out. "Glider! Perfect! Thank you carbide" I zip up the bag while I have the compressed glider in my teeth. After I maneuver the bag back to my back, I take the glider in my hand and I look back at the approaching base. 600 meters out. "I can make it ther-"

I'm cut off by a flying bird hitting my stomach, knocking the wind out of me, and also knocking the glider out of my hand. I watch as my only lifeline plummets towards the ground.

"NO YOU STUPID BASTARD!" I shout at the bird, happily flying off toward Loot Lake. _If I live, I will_ butcher _that stupid_ _thing._ I look towards the glider, far out of my reach. I can't catch up to it. I'm done for. _The rifts,_ I remember. I point my hands towards the glider, close my eyes, and think a single thought: "right behind it."

I hear a two cracks and see blue light through my eyelids. I quickly open my eyes, and see the compressed glider disc a foot away from my eyes. Saving my excitement at my accomplishment for when I'm out of the air, I grab the glider and see I have 20 feet left. I press the deploy button on the glider, throw it above me, and grab onto the handles of Intrepid as it expands...and I land on top of the base a second later. I stumble onto my hands and knees, dropping the glider to the side and breathing heavily from the near death experience of hitting the ground at a high speed.

I hear and feel six pairs of feet run towards me. Six pairs of hands immediately touch me, trying to comfort me ( _wait, six? Oh you've got to be kidding me?! The Visitor is good now? Screw it, at least if he doesn't build anymore rockets I'm ok with it)_

"Holy shit Claude!" Carbide explains. "You fell from nearly 2000 feet!"

"Are you ok Gabriel? You have blood all over you!" Valor says, preening me like a concerned mother. _Not like I haven't earned it at this point. I deserve_ some _comfort for saving the island._

"Where is the rocket?"demands Omega.

"Why are you caked in sand," Battlehawk says, dusting off my back and legs.

"What did you do inside the rocket? And what were those fissures you opened in the sky as you fell?" a robotic voice (that I'm assuming belongs to the Visitor) asked curiously.

"Why are your arms sparking blue?" asks Sarge wearily.

At that last comment I look at my arms. Sure enough, little blue flares of energy are running up and down my arms and hands. Everyone looks at them for a few seconds before the flares stop and my arms are back to normal.

I shakily get up on my feet, my six friends ( _I guess that is what the Visitor is to me now, I never thought this would happen_ ) help me stay standing. I raise a finger in the air, and swallow to clear my throat.

"First of all, they're called rifts," I start. "Second, Omega, take off both of your masks so I can see your face, because I think I have earned the right to...," I begin to trail off tiredly, and I start to fall forward. My eyes see black and I feel them all catch me and call out my name ( _both my first_ and _last name, but I'm sure the visitor also called me boy_ ). But I couldn't respond to their calls; neither did I care to answer them. Time for some much needed sleep after this very stressful day.

* * *

 **End of the Prologue! This took me a total of 24 hours to write, and it was really fun to think about what the characters would say. Hope you liked my original character Gabriel Claude. Sorry if the language is strong or the blood and violence makes too squeamish, but hey, that is why it is rated M baby! And I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors too. Also, FYI, the Vikings are speaking Norwegian. Hope you liked the humor and jokes I tried to slip in there as well. Anyway, like I said, please be respectful about this story. If you have any complaints or suggestions, please PM me or review and I will respond as soon as I can. Like I said, I'm a freshman in college, so that may take some time. If you've read this far, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to read my work! It was a total of 10,305 words (excluding authors notes and disclaimers). Any reviews, private messages, favorites, and follows on this story will be highly appreciated (as well as favorites and follows on myself as an author) and will make me eager to write more for you guys. If you are looking for Teen Wolf, FEAR NOT because it will be coming soon (as soon as I finish my homework due in a few weeks!). If enough people enjoy this, I will update soon (probably a few weeks). Take care!**

 **-AkaDeca**


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